Sunday.

We’ve come to the end of what will probably be the last “normal” weekend (whatever a normal weekend has come to mean) we’ll have in the United States for a while. After this election, no matter the outcome, no matter when the votes are tallied, all hell will break loose.

I have taken Wednesday off as a Mental Health Day. As I made my request I jokingly said to the Director of the organization, “I’ll either be hungover, drunk, or stoned. Of course, I’m kidding about that”.

It might be the best avenue out of this mess.

I am so weary and tired and fed-up. I’m sick of hearing about every outrage that Trump has done or every set of clutched pearls because a Democrat did this. I’m also extremely tired of memes stating the likes of “If people can’t be friends with you because of who you voted for they’re not very good friends to begin with”. That’s just a sign of crass cluelessness, because why would I want to be friends with anyone that will gleefully vote for Trump? The man has lied through his teeth for years, has no plan at all for anything, worked with the Senate to shove through a Supreme Court justice that will probably vote to not only end my marriage but take away a woman’s right to choose, never mind the fact that his policies permanently separated children from their families at the southern border.

I don’t terminate relationships with people because they voted for Trump. I terminate those relationships because they have a very weak moral foundation and lack any sense of human decency or compassion. They are selfish. I have no desire to debate or discuss their reasons for voting for a man that has done all of these things.

And now my blood pressure is going up. I’m going to go off and enjoy what’s left of this Sunday. Daylight Saving Time is over and my circadian rhythm is happy once again.

At least that part of my life is normal.

In The Clear.

From a 1982 commercial for Zayre Department Stores. I never did figure out where to buy a clear bathtub.

Neighborhood.

I was encouraged by the number of Trick or Treaters in the neighborhood late this afternoon. Parents and kids were going from house to house. Familiar calls of “trick or treat” were yelled from the sidewalk.

The majority of houses had a table set up on the front lawn with an assortment of candy and a bottle of hand sanitizer. I saw a half dozen houses with some sort of candy delivery system, usually a bunch of discarded paper towel rolls affixed end to end. A grown up would send candy down the chute to the waiting child with a trick or treat bag. One house had a witch’s hat in the end of the delivery system, and the candy shot out the witch’s hat.

This little slice of normal in the neighborhood raised my spirits a lot. Of course, we don’t get trick or treaters, being five stories up in a condo building, but Earl and I are eating the candy in the spirit of the holiday. It’s the American thing to do.

I was happy to see neighbors still decorating their houses. This has been an ongoing thing since the beginning of the month.

It certainly helps the mental state of the neighborhood. Happy Halloween!

Apple One.

Apple officially released their new subscription service today. It’s called Apple One. It’s basically a package deal for their individual services like Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple News, Apple Arcade, and iCloud. Their new service, Fitness+, will come before the end of the year, and it’s included in their “Premier” level of Apple One.

I subscribed us to Apple One Premier. It will save us a little over $5 a month vs the current subscriptions we have. Plus, we’ll be able to drop a couple of other subscription services, including Dropbox. Since we use Apple products, iCloud works just fine for us.

I’m excited about Fitness+. It’s a fitness program that works in concert with videos on various Apple devices and the fitness capabilities of the Apple Watch. I’m hoping it will inspire me to be a little more fitness minded during the dark, cold months of winter.

One can always hope.

National Cat Day.

It’s really not morning unless Truman has the opportunity to inspect the hallway on our floor.

He appreciates that I use this daily opportunity to clean out his litter box.

Flu Shot.

I went to the doctor’s office and received my annual flu shot on Monday. It’s not my favorite thing to do but I do it because I’m in my middle-aged years and that’s what we do. My doctor also mentioned a shingles immunization during my visit this past spring but I’m not ready for that. He says I’ll get sick and I should plan the two shots up against a weekend.

With COVID-19 going around I’m really not one to get shots that involve planning it against a weekend.

But I’m happy I got a flu shot. Like many folks, I’ve been thinking about COVID-19 vaccines. I will be very skeptical of a COVID-19 vaccine being shoved out while Trump is president. His administration is too corrupt to be trusted. When other countries like Great Britain, France, and Canada start giving out COVID-19 vaccines I’ll see what they’re giving out and go in that direction.

48 hours later I’m not feeling any ill effects from the flu shot, so that’s promising. I’m just ready for some extra sleep.

Fine.

I’m told by Democrat friends that “everything will be fine”, even though Amy Coney Barrett is now on the Supreme Court and probably has the deciding vote as to whether our marriage will continue to be legally recognized or not. Barrett was a member of the school board of a private school that not only rejected gay teachers, but also rejected any potential students from gay parents, so I’m pretty sure we know in which direction she would base her decision should and when this type of case comes up for a ruling.

This is the thing I can’t get beyond. Republican family members profess how supportive they are of our legal marriage and then they support the folks in Washington, D.C. that want to make sure that, among other things, the gays don’t get married. I have a hard time reconciling this fact and as I have said before, I won’t be going to some family gatherings any time soon.

But, the Democrats say everything will be “fine”. Our rights will continue to get stripped away. Healthcare? No more pre-existing conditions. I’ll be surprised if the ACA makes it into November. Roe v Wade? I’m sorry ladies, Amy Coney Barrett can’t trust herself to make decisions about her own body and neither should you. She wants old white men to make those decision for her and therefore, you will abide by their rulings as well. Women will no longer have the right to choose what to do with their own body.

But don’t worry, everything will be “fine”.

I’m writing this blog entry at 3 in the morning because I can’t sleep. I’m still so angry I can’t get my brain to settle down. I have to be up for work in a few hours. Thank god that will distract me enough from enjoying all of this frivolity everyone says is “fine”.

If someone asks me how I feel about something and I say it’s “fine”, one should never take that as a sign of happiness or contentment. To me, “fine” is a word of resignation and surrender.

It’s one of the worst four letter words in the English language.

2020.

This is 2020 in a song.

Occulus Quest 2.

So I’m learning how to play Beat Saber on our new Occulus Quest 2. Truman is apparently confused by this activity.